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Postage Overdue

When I’m working on a project I throw all my useable scraps into one metal bin and tell myself that I’ll sort those into their scrap drawers as soon as I’m done. It’s a lie. The scraps actually pile up in the bin as one project turns into the next. From there they spill onto a chair, and then the floor, and then someone plans to visit, and only then do I start sorting frantically so the sewing room looks slightly organized and like less of a fire hazard.

On my latest dive into the scrap heap it became obvious that I could cram no more into those drawers (except yellow…must buy more yellow fabrics…) and something must be done. Step #1 in Scrapdown 2016: A postage stamp quilt.

I’m combining the postage stamp and checkerboard tutorials from one of my favorite blogs, Red Pepper Quilts, to make my postage stamp quilt. Most of my scraps are shorter in length, so I’m using the 2″ x 7″ strip size and using white strips to break up all that color from my rainbow of scraps.

I spent the better part of Monday and half of Tuesday just cutting scraps:

And half of Tuesday and all of this morning chain piecing strips together:

And I’m still not done. I keep having to go back and cut more white strips to pair up with all those scraps. I think I had about 430 colored strips to start, so once these are all joined into blocks I may have enough for a HUGE quilt or a few small ones. This project is all about using up the scraps, not the size of the end result.

I wish I could say that my scrap bins were empty now, but the best I can tell you is that most of the drawers now close without too much stuffing. And I have a lovely pile of strip blocks waiting to be cut and pieced into postage stamp blocks.